Food items, such as meat, fish, etc., are commonly smoked by placing the items in a container or smoke box wherein wood, such as hickory, mesquite, etc., is smoldered. The smoldering wood emits an aromatic smoke which fills the smoke box and which imparts a distinctive smoked flavor to the food items. In order for the smoked flavor to deeply penetrate the food items and develop to a desirable flavor intensity, the wood within the smoke box is allowed to smolder for prolonged periods of time, i.e. several hours, so that the food items are continuously surrounded by the smoke created by the wood.
Many prior art devices for smoking food items, known as smokers, exist which typically require a user to manually create a fire within the smoker and then manually maintain the smoldering of the wood while the items are being smoked. Since this process can last several hours, as described above a user can spend an inordinate amount of time preparing the smoker and tending to the smoker in order to produce a quality smoked food item. A difficulty often arises while tending to a smoker, and in particular, while tending to gas-fired smokers, because ashes formed in the fire box from the smoldering wood tends to fall to the bottom of the fire box where the ashes can extinguish the flame.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for an improved smoker which allows for convenient creation of a fire within the smoker and which provides a convenient manner for maintaining the flame within the fire box so that quality smoked food items can be produced.